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Volvo not interested in buying back Volvo Cars from Ford

The Volvo Group, successfully spun off ball bearing company SKF in 1927, no longer has much to do with the Volvo brand of cars. While it does build large commercial vehicles, the automotive unit was sold to Ford all the way back in 1999, and the only real ties the two corporations share is joint-ownership of the Volvo logo and trademark. Unfortunately, things haven't really been all that rosy for the Swedish brand since it was purchased by the Blue Oval. Despite its lack of involvement, Volvo Group doesn't like to see its old auto division in such sorry shape and is reportedly willing to help... up to a point. The Swedish company will not purchase Volvo Cars back from Ford, but would consider funding various joint projects and becoming part of a consortium of owners.
The Volvo Group also opposes calls for the Swedish government's intervention. Some have suggested that both Volvo and Saab should be operated as state-owned brands. Says Volvo chairman of the board Finn Johnsson, "The state knows nothing about the car industry..." If Ford isn't able to keep it up and the Swedish gov't minds its own business, where does that leave Volvo? Johnsson suggests that Renault might be a good fit for potential owner of the brand. Ghosn, are you listening?

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Anonymous

6 Years Ago

The reason behind this is that Volvo uses one of Ford's facilities in good old Belgium. If Volvo was to buy back all their shares they would be left with one less plant and forced to pay their highly paid Swedish workers

Anonymous

Anonymous

6 Years Ago

Go to a Volvo Dealership. Pick up an S80 brochure.Read about the car, and then you will know why I would buy one over any BMW or Benz.The slow selling, little known S80 Premier Elite delivers 311 horsepower V-8, with a 5-speed electronic Auto Tranny and All Wheel Drive. The car has luxury items not found in any car, until you arrive at Bentley & R.R.The interior if simply fantastic!! The options are unique.Performance, speed, luxury and refinement al in one strong solid car.Carpeting? Mouton Wool. Hard wear areas? Leather! Fold down the rear seat center armrest. Behind it is a 'Fridge that will hold 2 6-packs soda / beer OR two 2-litre bottles OR 2 bottles of wine.Up on the rear package shelf, a hidden compartment. It holds 4 Swedish crystal stemware glass'es for tyour wine, nestled into a velvet-lined hidden compartment.Navgation, Sync, Stereo CD Cassette MP3 - anything you can name is there....Eighty Thou? NopeSeventy Thou? NopePUT everything optional on her, and you can't take her past $61,700.Park her with the moonroof open. Should it start to rain, the moisture sensor on the leading edge of the panel will sense it and close your roof for you, and re-check the locking system.

As you can tell - iwas totally blowen away by this car (that my friend bought).

Go and ask to see an S80 Premier Elite AWD.You too will forget the three German cars !(....and THAT'S before you drive the thing !)

Anonymous

Anonymous

6 Years Ago

I don't know about ?DRIVE? I thought it was "I-Drive" but i really do not know.I was (like many) not very into Volvo. I was more of a Caddy, Buick, Imperial, Chrysler guy. I got a job at a Volvo dealer, and slowly began to take notice of the quality and manufacturing excellence of them. But....still there was "Something lacking" - that something was visual luxury.When the S80 was introduced, it was like a breath of fresh air. In the following years, 2000 onward, the car "Wowed" me. The 2008 is perfection. I am not buying one because I came from a Lincoln-Mercury dealership and hacve an 11,000 mile 6 year old Town Car. But, next car will be an S80.No car is as strong as they used to be. Weight reduction, 'ya know - for those oh so holy competitive MPG numbers.A 1958 Impala weighs 41% more than a 2008 S80 !

Anonymous

Anonymous

Anonymous

6 Years Ago

Volvo's reliability has improved since Ford took over. Long term I think Ford needs Volvo as their global premium brand or near premium. Ford Europe want to hang onto volvo but Ford US wants to get rid of everything to save itself. Long term, Ford needs a line to compete with VW and Toyota. Only making mainstream Fords doesnt given them the complete line up!

If Ford is forced to sell volvo in order to get aid from the US government that will be bad for Ford (as above) and volvo (obviously!). volvo needs access to platform sharing to reduce development costs.

potentially, volvo could be part Ford, part Volvo AB and part swedish goverment owned. Benefits of more independence but also having Ford for sharing R&D and platform costs (like mazda). Ford will need to ensure congress allows such a part ownership and maybe the swedish government will need to support volvo whilst congress picks up Ford.

Would Saab be better merging with volvo? I cant see the swedish state wanting a part in two companies who compete in the same area. Saab also has a far smaller model lineup.

Anonymous

6 Years Ago

Makes sense they'd favor Renault. They own Renault's heavy truck business and so there'd be a little MAD element there in terms of brands. Whereas if Volvo cars was pawned off to the Chinese or the Indians they could become a blot on the name.

Anonymous

6 Years Ago

I'll give Ford some credit for not mismanaging Volvo like GM did with Saab. While still not profitable, at least Volvo saw a steady stream of interesting new models in the past few years. The entire lineup is reasonably fresh. While the S60, S80 and the related wagons are not considered the leaders in their class, both had been getting reasonably good reviews. C70 was well received. The recent XC70 with a turbo I6 engine and C30 were also getting good reviews. They steadily worked on removing people's reasons not to buy a Volvo. AWD? Check. V8 engine? Check. Turbo I6? Check. SUV? Check. Compare this to Saab's lack of fresh models. Aside from the reasonably new and good Saab 9-3, all they have is ages old 9-5 (which often competes with Accords on price after rebates) and a bunch of botched rebadging jobs (in GM's best traditions).

Volvo's profitability problems are probably more related to the small economies of scale. It's hard to be profitable for car companies that make just a couple hundred vehicles per year or so. Germany's luxury brands build way over 500K cars per year each. Sharing technology with a company like Ford could certainly help to reduce some costs, but Ford was overstretched until recently because it was sinking billions into its other luxury brands (Jaguar, LR, AM, and to some extent Lincoln), and the branding strategy was a mess. If Ford could manage without the extra cash, I think Volvo would be a very good asset to keep in the long run. It's the only true global luxury brand in their portfolio. It even outsells Lincoln on the domestic market if you don't count the Town Cars and their gross trucks which make up a bulk of Lincoln's sales.

Anonymous

Anonymous

Anonymous

6 Years Ago

I could def see (continued) happy synergies in trucks, I wouldn't count out the cars.

Don't forget how many great Volvos were powered by PRV engines. Not to mention, I could see Carlos doing a much better job with the Volvo brand than Ford has. No more of this high end French labeled sedan nonsense, with Megane/Laguna shoppers going up to S60/S80s instead of ze Germans. I mean who even remembers the Safrane?

Anonymous

Anonymous

6 Years Ago

A bit OT but in the latest TG episode (wich btw was awesome as ursual) Jezza put the V70 right beside the Jaguar XKR and declared it the coolest car ever.... Think he said it's because people often consider car lovers to be freaks but with the V70 you can drive a really good car and still pretend you're not really interested in cars at all =P He sais alot of stupid things but I think I have to agree with him on this one....

Anonymous

6 Years Ago

Oh God!

Why Renault?! Who could suggest such a thing.

Everyone knows what happened when Volvo Cars used parts from the Renault parts bin the last time... the Renault 5 Speed gearbox in the old Volvo S40, the terrible Renault V6 (also found in the DeLorean), and the other crappy Renault engines found in vehicles such as the Volvo 340...

Anonymous

Anonymous

Anonymous

6 Years Ago

Volvo is a wonderful brand.Ford has struggled to provide the leadership and resources needed to really take Volvo to the next level. Alan Mulally appears to be the "sharpest" of the CEO's among the Big Three, based on his track record it will be interesting to see whether or not he'll actually find success with the Volvo brand or simply just sell it and move on.What a crazy time in the auto industry.